


Meet the New Boss

by tanks4thememory



Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010), Tron: The Next Day (2011)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 19:53:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2122617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanks4thememory/pseuds/tanks4thememory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not long after Sam Flynn's takeover of Encom, a certain security guard gets called to his new boss's office for a discussion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet the New Boss

Eddie Martin shifted nervously from one foot to another as he rode the elevator up the many floors to the top levels of Encom tower. The summons that awaited him when he’d arrived for his nightly shift not too long ago was unexpected, to say the least. 

He’d just finished clocking in when that new girl on the development team had stopped by; Miss Verne, he thought her name was, though he recognized her better by her distinctive bob haircut than her name. After exchanging polite greetings, she’d told him that she’d been instructed to pass along the message that Mr. Flynn wanted to see him in his office before the start of his shift. When he’d asked why, she’d just smiled enigmatically and told him that he’d find out when he got there before clocking out for the night.

So here he was, up on the executive level, nervously approaching the door to Sam Flynn’s office. He’d heard about the shake ups and reorganizing that had been going on in the wake of Sam Flynn’s takeover of the company a few weeks back, especially the firing of a good number of the top brass and the re-hiring of a few prominent former employees. It was impossible not to, what with it all over the news, not to mention the state of semi-controlled chaos that Encom had been in for the first week or so afterward. 

But in his relatively lowly position as a night-shift security, Eddie had thought that he was fairly immune. He really wasn’t important enough to be bothered with and had been content to have a front row seat to all the goings on. Up until tonight, that was. 

He’d wracked his brains for anything he might have done or not done that would have warranted a meeting with the new head of Encom and had come up with only one thing. That night, the very night before Sam Flynn had taken over control of Encom, forgotten in the excitement of the following weeks. The night he’d unknowingly chased his future boss through the building and out onto the arm of a crane, which he’d then taken a dive off of. Eddie had almost had a heart attack before that parachute opened; really, kids these days…

That had to be it, though. Eddie was hardly paranoid enough to think that Sam had decided to take over the company after so long spent ignoring it specifically to get back at him, but… well, he could easily see the kid taking advantage of the opportunity to stick it to the guy that had tried to ruin his latest prank. 

Thus, relatively certain that he was about to be fired but determined to at least plead his case first, Eddie smoothed a hand back over his thinning hair, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door to Mr. Flynn’s office.

“C’mon in,” came the reply from the other side of the door, and Eddie stepped inside, finding Mr. Flynn seated behind a large desk with a smooth, flat black top that, upon closer inspection, he could see actually had a touch screen built into it. Mr. Flynn was dressed surprisingly casually, just a black t-shirt, and jeans, with a leather jacket that Eddie could see tossed haphazardly on a plush-looking couch in the corner.

Mr. Flynn rose as Eddie entered, leaning over the desk to offer him a handshake, which Eddie nervously accepted. “You wanted to see me, Mr. Flynn?”, he asked.

“Yeah,” Mr. Flynn said, gesturing for Eddie to take a seat in the chair opposite him. Once they were both seated, Mr. Flynn leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on the desk and steepling his fingers. “So, Eddie… Can I call you Eddie?” Eddie nodded his mute permission. “You’ve been with Encom how long now?”

“Three years now, Mr. Flynn,” he said. “Though I’ve only been on the night shift now for six months.”

“Well that explains why we haven’t met before,” Mr. Flynn said half to himself, a bit of an amused smirk quirking his lips, before he got back on track. “You like working the night shift, Eddie?”

“I… well…”, Eddie stammered a bit. What kind of response would be best for his chances here? “I like it just fine, sir,” he finally said. “That is, it pays the bills, so I can’t really complain.”

“But you liked the day shift better, right?” Mr. Flynn said, bringing up a file on the desk’s touchscreen. Eddie guessed that it was his personnel file, though he was at the wrong angle to be able to see it. “And don’t call me, sir. Makes me sound like I should be Alan’s age.”

“Uh…”, Eddie said lamely. What was the younger man getting at? Was this some kind of trick question? “Well, yes si- I mean Mr. Flynn,” he finally said. “But I mean, who doesn’t, right? Not that I’m complaining, or anything, like I said. These days, any job’s a good job, you know?” Well, no he probably didn’t; this kid probably made more money in a year than Eddie had in his whole life. Still, it seemed the remark had been taken as intended, since it got an amused smirk out of the young man across the desk.

“Right,” Mr. Flynn said as he skimmed through the file. “So... says here you haven’t been late to work in the whole time you’ve been here. That’s pretty impressive. Except for these couple days you missed last January.”

“Those days were excused,” he hastily, perhaps a bit too hastily, interjected. “My son was in the hospital; appendicitis. I had to make sure he was OK.” He had turned in that medical excuse form and gotten it approved, hadn’t he?

“I know,” Mr. Flynn said, looking back up at Eddie as he sat back in his chair. “That’s not what this is about though.”

“Then… what is it about?”, Eddie asked though he figured he already knew the answer.

“It’s about what happened the night before I took over Encom.” Eddie’s sudden tensing must have been more visible than he thought, because Mr. Flynn finally seemed to notice how nervous he was. “Relax, Eddie,” the younger man said with a chuckle, “you’re not in trouble.”

“I’m not?”, Eddie asked, tension replaced almost immediately by confusion.

“No,” Mr. Flynn assured him. “Eddie, you followed me out onto a _crane_. Not everybody would’ve done that for $12.50 an hour.”

“I… I was just doing my job,” Eddie said, unsure what to do with the implied praise in Mr. Flynn’s tone. He hadn’t really considered it that impressive at the time, though looking back part of him wondered what in the hell he’d been thinking doing that.

“Exactly,” Mr. Flynn said. “Anybody who considers something like that part of ‘just doing their job’ is somebody I wanna keep around for a long time. So as of your next paycheck, you’ll be seeing a 20% raise. And your pick of shifts, so you can go back to daylight, if you want. Spend more time with your family.” It was a moment before Eddie caught himself gaping and snapped his jaw shut as Mr. Flynn continued. “And _everybody_ on the security staff is getting two weeks paid vacation, which can be claimed any time starting the first of next month.” He shot Eddie a wry smile across the desk. “Figured I owed you guys something after all the grief I’ve given you.”

“Not to mention,” he said, “I’m altering the official security response protocols around here to make sure nobody else ever tries what you did. Cause, Eddie…? That was really dumb.” He kept that casual look for all of twenty seconds after he finished speaking before breaking off in a chuckle. Eddie found himself joining in out of sheer relieved disbelief. 

And then Mr. Flynn was standing back up and Eddie hastily did the same, accepting Mr. Flynn’s proffered handshake much more eagerly this time. “Thank you, Mr. Flynn,” he said. “Though can I ask… what brought this on? I mean, I thought I was gonna get fired for that or something.”

The younger man looked thoughtful for a moment before answering, as though he were trying to decide just how best to put his reply. “Let’s just say that I recently learned the value of having dedicated security,” he finally said before giving an enigmatic smile oddly similar to the one Miss Verne had given him.

Before Eddie could think too hard about what it might mean, Mr. Flynn spoke up again. “Anyway, I think you’ve got a shift to be getting to. And I’ve got some paperwork to finish. So, I’ll see you around?”

Eddie nodded. He did need to be getting back downstairs; Steve was covering for him and would want to be getting home. “Right, Mr. Flynn. See you around.”


End file.
